Canada earn four spots to Rio mountain bike events

Two men and two women will get an opportunity to race for Team Canada at the Deodore Olympic Park in Rio

Philippe Tremblay May 27, 2016

With consistent performances, Canada has been awarded four positions on the startline at the Olympic mountain biking events. Two men and two women will represent Canada at the Rio de Jaineiro Olympic mountain biking events.

“We are pleased to have secured two spots on both the women’s and men’s side for these upcoming Olympic Games!,” stated Jacques Landry, high performance director for Cycling Canada. “Our combined women’s and men’s Olympic ranking is an indication that Canada continues to be an international force in mountain biking.”

Olympic quotas for the 30 female and 50 male starting positions are determined by national rankings under the UCI points system. The final qualifying event was the world cup event in Albstadt, Germany on May 22 where Catharine Pendrel earned a third place finish.

Congrats and thanks to @CanMTBcycling teammates @derekzandstra and @LeandreBouchard. We earned those 2 Olympic spots pic.twitter.com/Uyc3Fjx9q9

— Raphael Gagné (@raphaelgagne) May 25, 2016

Canada is ranked third in the women’s nation standings behind only Germany and Switzerland and have received the max quota of two starting positions. The men sit in tenth place in the nation standings and have received two spots at the Olympics as well. The top five countries in the men’s standings receive three starting positions, Switzerland leads the men’s nation standings.

Landry continued, “With a little more than 14 weeks to the mountain bike events in Rio, the focus now will be to ensure that our targeted athletes continue to fine tune their technical and tactical skills, and hone in on final physiological adjustments through training and competitions in order to ensure that no stone remains unturned come August.”

The mountain bike events take place on Saturday, August 21 for the women and Sunday, August 22 for the men at the Deodoro Olympic Park. Team Canada will announce the selection of the riders headed to Rio at a later date.

Canada’s top mountain bikers are currently honing their form at the mountain biking world cup. The third round gets underway on May 28 in La Bresse, France in the Vogues region. Pendrel currently sits second in the overall world cup standings.